


In the Cold

by verevolwes



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: M/M, Part 6: Bastogne, Part 7: The Breaking Point, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-27
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-27 02:43:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/657182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verevolwes/pseuds/verevolwes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A romance carried out from one foxhole to the other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Cold

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even write fanfiction.  
> But I wrote this.
> 
> *Also, I guess, for the purposes of this work imagine all foxholes as covered with like tarps or whatever*

In Bastogne, in the woods, it was the worst sort of place Babe had ever encountered.

It was colder than anywhere he’d ever been, and as he crouched in his foxhole making up a New Year’s resolution to move to the Bahamas or the Cayman Islands when – if – he got home, he was willing to bet Bastogne is the coldest place he ever would be again.

Here, in a foxhole alone, Babe had nothing for comfort but his escapist thoughts, though even imagining himself lounging on a beach, after a while, lost its effect.

Julian used to be his foxhole partner; the night that he had been killed it was Spina and Roe; tonight he had thought to stay with Bill, but Buck had made him uncomfortable so he left. Eventually he made his way back to the hole he had shared with Julian and found that he had no one, couldn’t even hear the guys in the hole over, and the silence was starting to press into him.

It was snowing, lightly, but just enough that it muffled every sound that wasn’t his own breathing.

Slow and even.

In and out.

Babe felt calm but uneasy, a soldier who despite all reason had grown accustom to war.

 

He was slipping into what he knew would be an unsatisfying sleep when Roe dropped into the foxhole beside him the second time in as many nights.

“Doc.” He greeted him.

“Heffron,” he replied, turning himself so he could see Babe better “you look tired.”

“What a coincidence, I was just falling asleep.”

Roe’s mouth twitched at the corners in the slightest smile “You want I should leave? Let you get some rest …”

Babe was quiet for a moment, he really didn’t want to be alone but he was afraid that if him and Roe got to talking eventually he’d be asked about Julian, a subject he really just didn’t want to even think much about right now, let alone talk about. “Nah,” he eventually said, “by all means.”

They sit without speaking for a moment and though Babe would describe it as somewhat awkward he’s still glad he didn’t ask Roe to leave. In Bastogne even silent company is better than no company at all.

“You know, you’re a hard man to find.” The doc eventually says. “All last night and just now must have been to ten, maybe twelve holes looking for you.”

“Could’ve just followed my coughing,” Babe smiles, Bill’s told him frequently since he came down with it that he was at risk for that cough giving away their position.

“Still that bad, huh?”

Babe looks towards Roe to see him chewing on his lower lip in obvious concern. “Nah nah, not like that Doc, I’ll be fine. Plenty of guys out here got it way worse than me.” He tries to assure him but the look doesn’t leave Roe’s face.

“Gene, you’ll undo yourself worrying too much like that.” He tells him.

Roe’s eyes flick to his for a moment and he sighs because it’s true. “Yeah,” he says quietly, “I’ve been telling myself the same thing.”

It seems quieter than ever between pauses, and Babe realizes that the snow’s picked up. He feels the doc shiver next to him so he pulls over a blanket and drapes it over them both. “Follow your own advice, Doc,” he says, but Roe doesn’t respond, just wraps the blanket tighter around himself and looks pensive.

Babe finally falls asleep then, snow piling up around the foxhole, thankful for his silent company.

 

\--

 

The next night, during the attack, Babe would slice open his hand trying to get the doc out of a foxhole and into action. Men were screaming for medic and several people needed immediate attention, but here he was as if he couldn’t hear any of it - and Babe believed he really couldn’t – the same far off look in his eyes that had accompanied him as of late.

As Roe ran towards the sound of screaming Babe clutched his hand. The blood was steadily oozing out and despite not being any danger to him it still hurt like a sonofabitch.

He tries to nurse it though the fight, but he’s just no good without both hands and eventually forgets about the whole thing. It isn’t until Roe returns in the morning and asks him about it that he even remembers he’s got a messed up hand.

Gene calls him ‘Babe’ and wraps his hand in a pretty blue cloth and he seems more like himself than he has in days. Babe tries to watch the line but if Eugene Roe is in a talkative mood it’s not something he wants to pass up.

After a beat he asks him “Hey Gene, did I ever tell you about my New Year’s resolution to move to the Bahamas?”

He receives the first actual smile from the doc that he’s ever seen.

 

\--

 

After that they seem to share foxholes only on the worst of nights, with no night being worse than the night after Muck and Penkala were killed, and both Toye and Guarnere were carried off the line.

Babe was first in the foxhole; though he had a feeling Roe would be there soon. He had noticed that ever since Julian died they seemed to seek each other out when things got rough. Without any intention to, Babe had become Gene’s closest friend in the regiment, and now that Bill was gone, Roe had become his as well.

Thinking of Bill’s absence made his chest tighten and the blood rush to his face as he tried to keep from losing it. It’s of course at this inopportune moment when Doc Roe decides to show up, dropping into the hole with an exasperated sigh.

Babe sniffs and wipes his face, following it with a cough in an attempt to look sick rather than upset. He knows the second Gene’s eyes come to meet his that the doc doesn’t miss a trick that bad.

“Babe you alright?” he asks, it’s really all he can do.

“Yeah, fine,” he replies, voice cracking in betrayal. “Just thinking about shit.”

Roe sighs and removes his helmet. It lands in the hole with a dull thud. “The only good part about today is that it’s ending.” There’s a rehearsed sound to what he says, like he’s thought that line over and over in his own head before saying it now.

Babe supposes that whenever the end of this goddamn war is, he and Roe are at least one day closer to it.

“Gene do that prayer again, would you.”

“Why?” Roe asks, though he’s almost sure he knows the answer.

“I dunno, makes me feel better. I gotta have a reason?”

“Alright alright. For you Babe.” Gene smiles weakly. Taking out the string he slides over to sit next to Babe instead of facing him. He pushes his helmet out of the way with his foot, hoping beyond all hope that he won’t be needing it until the morning.

Eugene settles next to him and Babe instinctively pushes closer to him, seeking comfort.

 

_“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,_

_Where there is hatred, let me sow love;_

_Where there is injury, pardon;_

_Where there is doubt, faith;_

_Where there is despair, hope;_

_Where there is darkness, light;_

_Where there is sadness, joy._

_O Divine Master,_

_grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;_

_to be understood, as to understand;_

_to be loved, as to love._

_For it is in giving that we receive._

_It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,_

_and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life._

_Amen.”_

“Amen,” Babe adds.

Doc Roe chuckles, “How many times have you heard me recite that? Is ‘amen’ the only part you know?”

“Shut up,” Babe smiles, Gene laughs again, shaking Babe who leaned more and more into him as the prayer went on. Babe’s slipped down so low in their foxhole that his face actually only comes to about Gene’s shoulder. He’s so comfortable and warm – well, almost warm – next to Roe he feels like for the first time in a long time he could fall asleep without having to imagine he’s somewhere else.

So he does.

 

\--

 

In his dream he’s running through the woods, chasing the jeep that carried out Bill and Toye, trying to catch up.

He can’t see it or hear it but he knows, _he knows_ it’s just up ahead. Babe’s running through the snow leaving a trail of blood behind him though he’s sure it isn’t his. His feet pound the soft ground but don’t make any noise.

All he can hear at all is the sound of his own heavy breathing.

He’s running and he’s running and though he still can’t see the jeep Babe’s _sure_ he’s getting closer. He realizes, of course, how wrong he is when he runs right up to the German front line.

Faced with over a hundred armed Krauts, Babe doesn’t wake up until they start pumping him full of bullets.

 

\--

 

“Babe! Babe, it’s alright! Hey!”

Gene is gripping him too-too-tight at the arms but Babe can barely feel it. He’s thrashing and in hysterics, his dream had shook him so bad. Roe stills him and Babe’s wild eyes lock with his, stopping him in his tracks.

Brows tightly knotted and eyes wide, Babe’s never seen the doc look so worried. He feels like an idiot in that moment, for freaking out so bad over what he knows was a dream. _Hell_ , even while he was dreaming it he knew it was a dream.

“Gene …” he breaths, trying to force his heart rate back to normal, “s-sorry I just …” he doesn’t know what to say, he probably woke Gene with his screaming and ‘I had a bad dream’ just seems like a weak excuse.

“You’re okay.” Roe assures him but looks at him with such an intensity that for a second Babe’s worried that there might actually be something wrong with him.

“Yeah?” he asks. Looking at Roe looking at him like that Babe can’t get his breathing back to normal.

Eugene’s hand slides up from his bicep grip around the back of his neck. He rests their foreheads together and Babe feels his heart start to beat at what feels like irregular intervals.

“You scared me,” Roe’s voice is strained but low. “You were screaming like you’d been hit.”

“I’m fine … I’m fine,” Babe tells him, startled by the closeness “right?” he asks.

Roe exhales slowly before he pulls back a bit. “Yeah,” he finally says, eyes looking tired but still intense.

He nods, though admittedly Babe doesn’t feel fine. He feels like he might be sick and his skin feels hot all over. He’s about to make a comment about how all the air seems to have been sucked out of their foxhole when Roe leans in hazard close and kisses him.

 

Now his stomach does a real summersault and Babe stills. His head is spinning and he doesn’t know how to respond, but Roe’s pressing their lips harder together and gripping the back of his neck like he needs something and so Babe presses back.

Not immediately hating it lets Babe know he might be on to something. He brings his hands up and fists them into Gene’s hair as their mouths open and Babe lets him inside. Roe moans into his mouth when Babe pulls slightly, tilting Gene’s head back just enough to kiss him properly.

He startles when Roe’s other hand comes to rest on his waist, pulling them tighter together, but within seconds he decides he doesn’t mind. They kiss deeper and breathe heavier and Babe really thinks this might go somewhere until they hear footsteps in the snow outside.

They both still immediately and Babe is pretty sure he’s about to throw up for fear of being found out, but the steps get closer and then they pass. Babe lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and chances a glance at Roe who’s still looming over him.

Eugene’s mouth hangs slightly open, shocked in some capacity at what just transpired, but soon turns into a sort of half-smile.

Babe laughs on an exhale and Roe brings their foreheads together again for a brief moment pulling back and kissing Babe on the crown of his head.

Gene sits back against the opposite wall of the foxhole with folded arms and smiles.

“So we done for the night?” Babe jokes, staring at how the doc is still trying to catch his breath.

“Go back to sleep, Heffron.” Roe smiles, closing his own eyes and looking quite satisfied.


End file.
